It’s not something most of us want to think about: Long-term care, as in nursing homes and assisted living communities.

And polls show that many people don’t, in fact, give it a lot of thought. As I reported last week, 65 percent of respondents in a poll by SCAN Foundation had done little or no long-term care planning.

Long-term care insurance can be a smart way to prepare. But it isn’t for everyone. And it’s not necessarily easy to obtain. I learned this while researching a story in last week’s paper on Portland-based MasterCare Solutions.

So here’s more food for thought.

Three considerations go into purchasing a long-term care policy: How soon? How long? How much?

• How soon? The typical waiting period is 90 days. And the policy doesn’t pay benefits until an individual is unable to perform at least two of six basic activities of daily living (eating, bathing, dressing, transferring, toileting and continence).

• How long? The length of time that a policy pays benefits typically varies from two to 10 years. It pays until the policyholder dies, uses up the pot of money or cancels. Once they activate the policy, they stop paying the premium.

• How much? If a person exhausts the benefits before they die, they can qualify more quickly for Medicaid, which will disregard the benefits paid out. It also works if a person has bought a policy and after a few years, the rates go up and they can no longer afford it.

“The consumer can buy a plan and have a safety net around their assets equal to the amount they’d have in benefits,” said Kevin Jeffries, consumer liaison for the Oregon Insurance Division.

Oregon also gives a tax credit to residents who take out policies worth 15 percent of the premium, or up to $500.

A typical policy from Genworth, the biggest long-term care insurer in the country, runs about $150 to $200 a month per person, said MasterCare President Mike Skiens.

Insurance, however, isn’t always easy to obtain. Fewer carriers are offering the product because interest rates have been so low. And the underwriting process is arduous and invasive, with documentation required from doctors that the potential policy holder is still of sound mind.

Premiums start out higher the older a person is when they take out a policy. Skiens said rate increases over the course of a policy used to be unheard of, but they’re starting to happen. “The younger you are when you buy it, the less you’ll pay over time,” Skiens said.

All of which paints a complex picture in terms of costs and benefits of taking out a long-term care policy. Yes, it may be appropriate for certain people, but it’s certainly not an easy choice in every case.